


Nerf This

by bronzemist



Series: The Voyages of the Starship Overwatch [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 14:03:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13009389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bronzemist/pseuds/bronzemist
Summary: In which Hana Song gets her revenge on Sanjay Korpal and his cronies with the questionable assistance of Jamison Fawkes.





	Nerf This

**Author's Note:**

> I mostly just wanted to write a fic about my mains being best buddies tbh

"Hey, sweetie, why don't you grab me that flux wrench?" Korpal called, snickers following his words.

Hana gritted her teeth. "Why don't you get it yourself, Korpal?"

There was no response, but Hana wasn't expecting one. He didn't really need the flux wrench, after all, not for his project. It was just an excuse to get in one more dig at her. She blocked it all out, narrowing her focus down to what was in front of her. It was her pet project – her defence matrix, a shield of light designed to block projectiles. At least, that was the theory. But she'd hit a wall in the past couple of weeks and couldn't seem to move past it.

Hana sighed. She wasn't stupid. She knew that despite her efforts to block it out, working with Korpal and his buddies' constant belittling was wearing on her. The sensible part of her knew that she should just go to Commander Lindholm, or even Lieutenant Vaswani, and tell them what was going on.

It was just... she was already the kid, the one everyone was watching to see if she'd really earned her position in Starfleet. Hana didn't want to go tattling to Mom and Dad – she wanted to solve her own problems. They wouldn't keep it up forever; they had to get bored with picking on her eventually.

Hana was rocked out of her thoughts as a thunderous boom echoed through engineering, rattling tools and equipment. On any other ship, this might have been cause for panic. However, most ships didn't have...

"FAWKES!" A furious Swedish bellow rang out.

"Heh, sorry mates!" Called an aggravatingly cheerful Australian voice. "Wasn't expecting that!"

As Commander Lindholm began his usual rant, Hana glanced across the bay at Fawkes. The man was covered in soot, and there seemed to be smoke curling up from his hair. Another glance around the rest of the bay showed the usual assortment of irritated expressions in his direction.

It could be worse, Hana reflected. Sure, she had to put up with being condescended to because of her age, but at least she had friends – Jesse, Lúcio, even Hanzo and Olivia. As far as she knew, Fawkes didn't have anyone. Everyone, in engineering at least, viewed him with either fear or annoyance. Though speaking of annoyances...

"Aw, did that scare you, Song?" It wasn't Korpal, but one of his friends.

"Buzz off, Smith, I'm concentrating," she snapped.

"Oh, too difficult for you?" Smith asked, false sympathy in his tone. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure it out when you're older."

Before Hana could retaliate, he moved off, probably back to the rest of them, to tell them about this newest victory, she thought bitterly.

 

She'd thought it wouldn't last. She'd figured that after a few months, Korpal and the rest of them would get bored of picking on her. But they hadn't.

Hana couldn't go to the Commander. She just – she couldn't, not when she'd let it go on for so long. Her pride refused it. No matter what Jesse and the others said. She'd figure it out herself. Hana wasn't exactly sure how, but that wasn't the point.

She was laying underneath a console, trying to figure out why it was playing _Space Invaders_ sounds every time a switch was flipped. At least, that had been what she was doing until Korpal, Smith, and the rest of them walked by, talking about her as though they didn't know she was there. Now she was clenching her pliers in her hand, seething.

"Why do you let them talk about you like that?"

Hana nearly cracked her skull on the underside of the console. She slid out, staring up in shock at the oddly-subdued Fawkes.

"What?"

"Them," he jerked his head in the direction Korpal and the others had gone. "They've been treating you like shit since you got here, and you just let them!"

"I do not 'just let them'!" Hana snapped, stung.

"Looks like that from where I'm standing," Fawkes retorted, not at all intimidated. "I just don't get it," he said, tone softening, "even I can see that you're smarter than all of them put together."

Hana would never admit that that honest praise sent a warm feeling spreading through her chest.

"I thought they'd get bored eventually," she admitted, unsure of why she was telling this to Fawkes of all people. "Now I don't know what to do."

"Could tell the boss." Said Fawkes, but the expression on her face must have made it clear what she thought about that. "Yeah, I don't blame you."

For a moment they were both silent. Hana turned her pliers over in her hands. What could she do? Her pride refused to tell Commander Lindholm, but what other option was there?

"I could always blow them up." Fawkes offered.

"That seems a little excessive," said Hana, though she couldn't deny the appeal in the simple solution.

Fawkes shrugged. "I blew up McCree like, a month ago, and all anyone did was yell at me." Then he shuddered theatrically. "Though I could go without the Big Bosses yelling at me again."

Hana remembered that. It was lucky for Fawkes that McCree had clearly been looking for trouble, and that Commander Reyes knew him well enough to see that. Commander Lindholm had been about ready to throw him out of an airlock.

"Why are you even offering to help me, Fawkes?" She asked. "We've never even spoken before."

Again, he shrugged. "I don't like listening to them pick on you just 'cause they're jealous. I know what you all think of me, but I kinda deserve it. You don't."

Hana suddenly felt a surge of guilt, regretting every nasty thing she'd ever thought about Fawkes.

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be!" His cackling laugh didn't seem entirely genuine, but it still drew irritated looks from Lieutenant Vaswani and a few of the other redshirts. "I bet it's a real pain getting shaken around every time one of my mines blows on me!"

"Mines?" She repeated. "But aren't they... supposed to blow up?"

At her question, Fawkes' whole face lit up. He nodded eagerly. "Yeah, and they're real good at it too! A bit too good, actually, which is why I keep having these little... accidents."

Hana's mind went back to her defence matrix. Fawkes' mines were exactly the kind of thing she'd theorized it would be used against.

"I have an idea!" She exclaimed.

 

The testing room of the _Overwatch_ 's engineering division saw little use by most of the crew. After all, who needed to do testing when they were repairing replicators, or manning the transporter? Hana herself had never had need to use it before today.

Yet here she was, crammed with Fawkes in the tiny observing area. He held a detonator; she, a remote trigger for her defence matrix.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Ready!"

As his thumb depressed the detonator, she hit the button to activate her defence matrix. The mine exploded; green light appeared around her defence matrix. Within seconds, it was over; a cheery beep told them it was safe to enter the room.

"Well, I know my mine works!" Said Fawkes, grinning as he looked at the scorch mark on the floor. Hana, meanwhile, was carefully looking over the bright pink shell of her defence matrix. It was mostly undamaged, but there was a single, tiny piece of yellow metal embedded in the casing.

She swore vigorously in Korean.

"I don't know exactly what you just said, sheila, but it didn't sound good."

"Look!" She showed him where the shrapnel from his mine had gotten through the matrix. "A shield is only useful if it reflects 100% of the damage, not 95%!"

"I can't help you there," Fawkes said, raising his hands, "I'm good at dealing damage, not the other way around."

Hana groaned. "I don't know why I can't figure this out!"

"Maybe it's because you're spending half your time dealing with the peanut gallery, instead of thinking about it?" Offered Fawkes.

"I know." She sighed. "Ugh, maybe we should just blow them up. Serves those jerks right."

"You know, I've seen them take your stuff before," Fawkes said, a thoughtful tone entering his voice. "It would be a shame if some of my prototypes were to be mixed in..."

Hana felt her eyes widen.

"After all, everybody knows you're the only one who uses things painted bright pink..." He continued, inclining his head towards the canister of spray paint attached to her tool belt.

A slow grin began to spread across her face.

"You know what, Fawkes, I think we're going to be pretty good friends," she said.

"In that case, love, call me Jamie!"

 

At the start of her next shift, Hana moved from the workbench she'd been using to the empty one next to Jamie. At first she'd been worried that this would put her within the blast range of any future 'accidents' he had, but she'd quickly realized that while careless with his own safety, Jamie was actually quite good about protecting others. Much of his work was done behind a blast wall that he'd obviously made himself, and on her first day working beside him, he'd handed her a pair of bright pink earplugs.

"It can get loud," he'd told her, gesturing to his own set.

"Thank you," she'd replied, a little surprised at the consideration.

Working next to Jamie had other benefits as well; it had made Korpal and the rest of them leery of bothering her while she was working. Everyone gave Jamie a wide berth, which now meant they gave Hana a wide berth as well.

"Are you certain it is wise to be working in such close proximity to him, Miss Song?" Lieutenant Vaswani had asked during her second shift after the move, concern carefully hidden behind her rigid articulation and neutral expression.

"He's actually really careful, Lieutenant Vaswani!" Hana had replied, giving her superior officer a bright smile. "Look! He even made me earplugs!"

Lieutenant Vaswani had had no response to that, and had left her alone, though not without casting a suspicious glance in Jamie's direction. But Hana didn't blame her for that; the chaos and disorder that surrounded Jamie must be particularly grating for the meticulous half-Vulcan.

When Hana arrived at her workbench, four shifts after becoming friends with Jamie, she found him waiting for her with an eager smile.

"I'm about to go off-shift," he told her apologetically, "but I made you these!"

'These' were four bright pink, seemingly innocuous cubes, sitting in the centre of her workspace.

"What are they?" She asked, glancing around. Korpal, Smith, and the rest of them were nowhere in sight.

"Little flashbangs." He told her. "They make a lot of noise and a lot of light, but they won't do more than singe you a little."

"What sets them off?"

"See the little bunnies on the top?" He pointed out.

Hana looked. Indeed, there were adorable cartoon bunny faces on the top face of each of the cubes.

"That's their 'safe' position. If you shift them so the bunny's facing down, it arms them. Once that's happened, all it takes is a little nudge, and then... bang!"

She grinned, looking down at the little cubes. Korpal and the rest of those idiots wouldn't know what hit them.

"Thank you, Jamie."

"No worries, sheila!" He grinned at her. "I just hope I'm around to see the fireworks!"

As he left, Hana sat down to work, carefully sliding the bunny cubes into the assortment of odds and ends piled in a corner of her workbench. It would probably take a while for Korpal or one of the others to work up the courage to start stealing from her workbench again, but for the first time in a while, she found herself hoping they wouldn't give it up.

She was ready to get some revenge.

 

Hana was on her way back to her workbench when someone called her name. She turned and looked up at Brigitte Lindholm, wondering not for the first time how someone as short as the Commander had such a tall daughter.

"Yes?"

Brigitte had a concerned expression on her face. "I saw Mr. Korpal take some things off your bench."

"Really?" Hana said excitedly. "Did you see what?"

"Um, a flux wrench, some scrap metal, a few little pink boxes..." Brigitte replied, concern turning to confusion. "Er, shouldn't you report him to Dad – um, the Commander?"

"Finally!" Hana exclaimed in delight, racing over to Jamie's blast wall. She barely noticed the confused Brigitte trailing behind her.

"Jamie!" She knocked several times on the blast wall before sticking her head around it. Jamie was hunched over his own workbench, carefully painting a smiley face onto the top of one of his mines. "Jamie, it's happening!"

"Really?" He jumped up immediately, wide grin on his face. "Oooh, I can't wait to see this!"

"Uh, can someone tell me what's going on?"

"Shh!" Jamie hissed at Brigitte. "You'll give it away!"

"Give what away?" She demanded.

"Korpal and his buddies have been picking on me for months," Hana explained quietly, eyes zeroed in on that man's workspace. "Patronizing me, treating me like a child, taking my stuff without asking..."

Brigitte nodded slowly. "Yes, I'd... I'd noticed..."

"So Jamie came up with this brilliant idea – well, you'll see. Any second now..."

All three of them watched as Korpal sat at his desk, Smith and two more of their friends beside him. It was difficult to see across the bay, but Hana caught a glimpse of bright pink in his hands.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, I hate waiting..." Jamie muttered.

Hana was practically vibrating, she was so excited. She hadn't quite realized just how eager she was to see Korpal and the rest of them finally face some consequences for how they'd been treating her for months now.

"Are you guys sure about this?" Brigitte asked nervously.

"Trust me, they deserve this." Hana said.

The bang wasn't nearly as loud of some of Jamie's past explosions, but the accompanying burst of light was near-blinding. Korpal and the other three men all screamed in shock. Two more bangs followed in quick succession, along with equally blinding flashes of light. Everyone in the bay turned to look; Hana saw several shocked expressions when people realized the bangs hadn't been caused by Jamie.

"I'd wondered if they'd set each other off." He said, grinning ear to ear. Hana was giggling helplessly, hands over her mouth.

"FAWKES!" Commander Lindholm bellowed, storming out of his office.

"It wasn't Fawkes, sir," someone called out.

When the Commander turned, scowling, to look, he was quite obviously taken aback at the sight of his daughter standing with Hana and Jamie, clearly uninvolved with whatever had happened.

"I see..." He grumbled, grumpy expression quickly returning. "Then who's been taking inspiration from him... Korpal?"

The sight of Korpal's panic-stricken face, eyebrows singed, was something Hana would treasure forever.

"Sir, I – I can explain - "

"Is that so?" It was difficult to tell, but Hana thought Commander Lindholm was smiling beneath his beard. "I look forward to hearing this explanation of yours. All four of you, my office, now."

As the group walked past Hana, Korpal glared over at her. She smiled sweetly back, and made a heart shape with her hands. He switched his glare to Jamie, who gave him such a terrifying grin in response that he physically recoiled.

"Oh, I don't even care if I get in trouble!" Hana sighed, flopping down in her chair as the door to Commander Lindholm's office slid shut. "Totally worth it!"

"You won't," Jamie assured her. "He'd have to 'fess up to stealing from you, and he's not going to do that."

"You won't get in trouble." Brigitte's voice was unexpectedly firm. Hana looked up in surprise, having half-forgotten she was there. "I'd... I'd tell my Dad that they deserved it. Because they did."

"Um... thanks, Lindholm." Said Hana, suddenly feeling a bit awkward.

"I – I'm sorry I didn't stand up for you, Hana," Brigitte said quietly, shoulders slumped. "I should've done something about this..."

"No, no, it's okay, really," Hana said quickly, "I could've gone to the Commander ages ago, but I wanted to handle things myself."

"Well, you definitely did that," the guilt in her voice hadn't entirely disappeared, but Brigitte managed a small smile in her direction.

"It was all thanks to Jamie!"

"You would've figured something out," said Brigitte, shaking her head. "I've seen how smart you are."

"Oh, um, th-thanks," Hana stuttered, cheeks heating up. There was a light flush in Brigitte's cheeks as well.

For a second, neither of them spoke. Then, Brigitte glanced to the side, where Hana's defence matrix was sitting on her workbench.

"Can you... do you mind showing me how it works?" She asked, nodding at the device.

"Oh, sure!" Hana exclaimed, eagerly pouncing on the new subject. "Maybe you can help me figure out this issue I've been having, fresh eyes and all..."

She slid over on the bench, making room for Brigitte to sit beside her. As she began explaining how the defence matrix worked, she caught Jamie's gaze over the other woman's shoulder. He gave her a broad grin and two thumbs up.

With her free hand, Hana reached behind Brigitte's back and gave him a thumbs up back.

Things were finally starting to look up for her.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, much thanks to [helraisingstar](http://helraisingstar.tumblr.com/) for letting me ramble at them about this series. Thanks to everybody who's been reading and commenting and leaving kudos, you all are amazing and I love you!
> 
> Also since the winter wonderland event started I've been playing a ton of overwatch, so if you play on ps4 feel free to hit me up, same name there as here!


End file.
